Methods for rapid manufacturing are known in the art and have traditionally been employed to produce high quality parts in a reduced amount of time. One example of such a rapid manufacturing process is bridge tooling casting for polymeric materials. The rapid casting process generally begins with obtaining a master pattern, such as through an additive manufacturing technology (e.g., stereo lithography). A silicone material is then poured around the master pattern to create both a first member and a second member of a mold tool. A liquefied polymer can then be poured into the coupled members of the mold tool for casting a part.
The time required to produce a part through rapid manufacturing is significantly shorter than with conventional methods such as sheet metal forming, machining, molding, or other methods known in the art. In this way, rapid manufacturing technology can be used to manufacture high quality parts in relatively small numbers for fit, function, and assembly testing; for product samples; and/or for low volume production runs. The impact on new products is a decrease in overall development time by allowing for problems to be identified and for corrections to be made early in the process.
While parts manufactured through rapid manufacturing technologies can and are used in further assemblies, these parts can suffer from limited performance capabilities such as insufficient mechanical properties. Accordingly, methods and operations for optimizing the rapid casting process and for consistently producing parts are necessary.